Tyler Shields’ Route 66 (2020, Gelatin Silver Print) captures a striking, cinematic vision of Americana reimagined through the artist’s signature lens of provocation and glamour. Rendered in black and white, the image depicts a lone female figure standing at the center of the iconic American highway, her back to the viewer, arm outstretched in the universal gesture of hitchhiking. Wearing only high heels, her pose is both bold and vulnerable, fusing the timeless symbolism of the open road with Shields’ exploration of risk, beauty, and transgression.

The stark contrast of the asphalt cutting through the desert landscape, stretching endlessly toward distant mountains beneath a sky scattered with clouds, amplifies the sense of both possibility and isolation. The figure herself becomes a living symbol of freedom, desire, and danger—an embodiment of the myths surrounding Route 66 as the “Mother Road” of American culture.

In Route 66, Shields collapses nostalgia into contemporary edge, creating an image that is as much about cultural memory as it is about fantasy. The photograph invites viewers to confront themes of escape, rebellion, and the pursuit of the unknown, cementing its place as part of the artist’s ongoing dialogue with iconography and excess.

Chromogenic print

15 x 20 inches